I’ve been speaking more and more and am consistently amazed that the VAST majority of looks on the faces out in the audience are ones of understanding.
Not you-poor-thing understanding.
I-struggle-with-the-same-thing understanding.
Being limited to a single hour of verbal blabbing instead of the endless opportunity to self-analyze here on the blog has helped me to really focus. It has caused me to zero in on what has made this deslobification process successful.
Y’know, as opposed to the thousand-ba-jillion failed attempts to change my slobbish ways pre-blog.
Here’s the one difference. The only difference.
I didn’t quit.
About a year ago, I saw a woman I hadn’t seen in a while. I didn’t recognize her at first. She had lost a SIGNIFICANT amount of weight. A shocking amount.
As I raved about her success and asked what she had done, she said . . . “I just didn’t quit this time.”
How simple. How profound.
This statement has been re-playing in my head lately as I’ve been working to make exercise a non-negotiable part of my life again.
I realized that it’s also true for me and my deslobification process. Yes, I’ve come up with daily habits that make sense to my Slob Brain. I’ve learned how to declutter and have purged this house like a maniac for the past three years.
But ultimately, the only difference has been that I didn’t quit.
Not when my master bedroom fell back into disarray for the 67th time. Not when I get consumed with a project and wake up to a house that hasn’t seen a daily habit or weekly cleaning task in a month.
Not when I fail. Again and again.
So the best advice I can give anyone at any point in their own deslobification journey?
Don’t quit.
Just don’t.
Amen Sister, so simple yet so profound…….
That is the best advise I’ve heard since… well… ever!
Thank you! I felt like giving up 10 minutes ago as I walked through my master bedroom which is needing a cleanup and the hallway that has become a catchall.
This statement is SO simple, and I just need to remember to keep on and get back on “the bicycle.”
I have to admit – when the going gets tough, I tend to quit. I need reminders like this now and then.
My kitchen walls are freshly painted 2/3 of the way. I don’t want to move the fridge, so I haven’t forced myself to continue. Plus, I’m going to run out of paint.
In my head, I’m now hearing:
“Hey, Elaine in Ark, those are just excuses to quit! Get with the program, stop and Home Depot and get a quart of paint, and paint over that ugly beige with that beautiful light aqua, and decorate the kitchen. Just get it done!”
Really, moving the fridge can’t be that bad.
Thanks for this post.
I am happy to report that deslobbing was my New Year’s Reslolution and I am still plugging away!! Is my house clean right now? No. Is it bothering me? No, cuz I have plans and I know how simple it is to just pick it up in a little bit. For now, I’m drinking my coffee.
Most times, the simplest things are biggest truths.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I hope I remember this when I am tempted to quit. I think it was Winston Churchill who said, “Never give up. Never give up. Never give up.”
Thank you!!! I can’t tell you enough how grateful I am to you for sharing your story. I struggle so much to keep a clean house. I feel completely overwhelmed just going a day or two without doing the dishes. My stepdaughter had a friend coming over this weekend so I cleaned like crazy this morning and after work. In two and a half hours, our clean looks like someone else’s messy but its a place to start. There are flat surfaces and I don’t have to step around bags and boxes of things I need to put away. I can’t wait to wake up to my vacuumed living room tomorrow and drink my coffee on the couch without moving laundry first. I hope I can keep it up, 15 minutes a day would save so much heartache.
Nothing like the d words to “diligence, devotion, dedication, discipline” those are the words that make a “difference”!
Nony, I love you – it is sooooo good to hear from a slob in transformation! I am almost ready to take the plunge myself and de-slob my house; it’s been 10 years of kids’ toys overtaking the whole and I’m ready to start paring down. Of course, our room is the worst (as many master bedrooms are, with the shoving of things that simply don’t fit anywhere else) and I am trying to get up the motivation to just begin. Thank you for your words of encouragement, and your daily posts to get us all going!
I’ve heard it said: “The only time you truly fail is when you quit.” Thanks for the reminder.
As always – reading your blog gives me hope! But today it also gave me a motivating reminder that I can use when I want to do nothing! Thanks!!!
Thank you. This post means so much to me. You are one amazing lady!
Love it! Can’t wait to see you again. Do you ever post your speaking schedule?